Big Trout Lake Loop

Algonquin Big Trout Lake Loop - September 22-26, 2014

Looking for a late September backcountry trip as I usually do, myself and Pete decided upon a loop kayak trip in Algonquin, starting from Canoe Lake to Big Trout Lake – a well known and traveled route by many.  In fact, the Portage Store’s website shows it as a virtual canoe trip route, and it is in Kevin Callan’s books as well.  Personally, I would never start any trip from Canoe Lake in the peak seasons of July or August, it’s simply way overcrowded and probably is the epicenter of canoeing in Canada, if not the world..  filled with newbies, yahoos, singing Boy Scout troops and other undesirables I precisely want to get away from on a backcountry trip.

We got in late afternoon and decided not to go out that day as we were originally planning, so we went to Canisbay Lake to car camp.  I had never been there before and to my pleasant surprise, it was one of the better campgrounds I had been to in Algonquin – I certainly don’t like Mew Lake or Kearney Lake, they are way too crowded, Lake of Two Rivers is pretty, but crowded as well.  Canisbay has many privater-than-average sites, and is on a nice lake that even has paddle-across-the-lake semi backcountry sites.  We arrived with the power out to the campground from the huge rains earlier in the day, drove around to look at some of the vacant sites and picked one.  We had to deal with some typically shitty Ontario Parks firewood for our camp fire that night.

Day 1

Luck was on our side with the weather for this trip, although it didn’t appear so at the beginning of Monday when we got to Canoe Lake to start off, after having eaten a not so great, but good energy breakfast at the Lake of Two Rivers Cafe.  The weather was overcast, coldish with a high of 10, windy and spitting rain.  The leaf change was well underway, but not at their peak quite yet.  The good thing about that was that there was no one else leaving for the backcountry from Canoe Lake.  We packed up the canoe and headed out on Canoe Lake, our destination Burnt Island Lake for the evening.   We passed the Tom Thompson cairn on Canoe Lake and made our way to the 295m portage between Canoe and Joe Lake.  This portage looks like a highway with a big wide portage trail, complete with a composting toilet rest stop midway through the portage.  Continuing on to Joe Lake, we passed a few campers on their site, otherwise it was pretty quiet on the lakes.  The water was higher than normal on most f the lakes due to the rain from the day before which was good for several reasons.  The route took us to a meandering stream that, because of the high water, bypassed one of the portages since we glided right over several beaver dams.  We ate lunch at the beginning of the 730m portage and a quick paddle to another 200m portage before we were on Burnt Island Lake.

Burnt Island Lake is quite Large and beautiful, fortunately the wind was on our side for a change and we had a tailwind, as the sun began to dip down on the horizon.  We paddled about 2/3 across the lake and decided to look for a campsite.  Just around this time the wind started to pick up quite a bit.  The first campsite we went to check out had a good camp layout, however the wind was becoming quite the beast and this site was exposed, unfortunately, the wind was coming the same direction as the sun, so we were reluctant to go for a site in the shade to shelter from the wind - it was only 10 degrees after all.

We paddled down one arm of the lake to the last campsite on that arm and pulled up to it.  The trees were growing out of the water and it was a bit difficult landing since the water was about 5 feet higher than normal, judging from the shoreline.  Fortunately this site had a hill shading us from the wind but not the sun.  We set up camp, then broke out Pete’s breakdown bucksaw and his new Woodsman’s Pal, a machete-like implement, great for limbing small to medium sized branches and went to hunt for firewood.  The wood was plentiful from a downed tree up on a ridge behind the camp and the saw and pal made short work of them.  We drank plenty of wine/beer that night around a roaring campfire.  The skies cleared for a bit as we listened to the loon calls, alas, we were to find out the clear skies would not last - luckily the calming wind would.

 

Day 2

Destination for this day was Big Trout Lake.   We got a bit of a late start this day – woke up with some on and off light rain that would not relent, and still a bit chilly from the night before but not too bad.  We slowly packed up and hit the water, making our way to the 790m portage between Burnt Island and Little Otterslide Lakes.  We set off on the portage after fuelling with some chocolate.  After paddling the Otterslide lakes a series of shorter portages then the last 730m portage, we finally made it to Big Tout Lake, and there was still some decent time left in the day.  The skies were heavily overcast but that was fine, there was not much wind thankfully, as this is quite a big lake.  We decided to pick an Island campsite, both because there was apparently a nuisance bear in the area according to the park staff before we took off, and an island site also could provide us with both sunset and sunrise views.

The only site we checked out is the one we picked.  It had a cool looking grass campsite, with a good bench around a nice firepit on a point – sold!  There was a large deadfall pine tree very close to the camp, we were surprised no one had harvested it earlier.  We cut the larger limbs off and processed a huge pile of wood for the fire.  It was still moist and damp so a fire would be good that evening we thought as we set up our still soaked tents and dampish sleeping bags.

The sky cleared that night and I got a couple night shots, but a fog started rolling in shortly after before going to bed.

Day 3

I woke up surrounded by white dampness…  the fog which looked pretty cool.  But I think this was the turning point for the weather – it was all good from here on out.  The fog burned out, gradually revealing the colors of the nearby islands and the sun warmed and gloriously dried everything that were spread over the rocks, before packing up and pushing off.  It was a brilliant day weather wise.  Another lateish, past 11am start due to drying our gear out.  The plan for the day was to get to McIntosh Lake, but do a day hike behind the ranger cabin on Trout Lake to a former collapsed fire tower on the ridge, according to Jeff’s Maps.

We paddled across Trout Lake on a summery day - past the high cliffs between Trout and Big Trout and made our way to the ranger cabin on the other side of the lake.  After pulling up the boat at the ranger cabin, we quickly ate some snacks and started off to look for the trail.  The trail starts off passing the outhouse behind the ranger cabin and quickly becomes overgrown, covered with deadfall and unfollowable after a couple hundred meters.  Despite that, the forest under the canopy is relatively open so I used my GPS to do some bushwhacking…  my only regret was that I was only wearing shorts not pants since I wasn’t expecting this activity, o my shins got scraped up good in the bush.  After about an hour or so tromping around in the bush, we made our way to a ridge where we heard a moose maybe 30 meters from us.  We wanted to get to the tower but from my GPS, it still was another kilometer away and it was starting to get a little late. We had a bunch of paddling to do to get to the planned destination for the evening so we turned back and headed back to the boat.

Off through McIntosh Marsh we went, and a marsh it is – a huge wetland with cool scenery  We picked our way through the channels, around the floating peat islands through the marsh.  We did stop at one campsite-one of two campsites in all of McIntosh marsh - and debated for a short period of time whether to camp there, or continue another 6 km of paddling along with a 745m and a 510m portage to McIntosh lake since it was now about 4 o’clock and darkness starts to set in around 6:30 or 7 this time of year.  We decided to push on.  Up McIntosh creek we continued with the meandering until we reached a substantial beaver dam in the way.  I was glad that it was just high enough to still be able to drag the loaded canoe + peter over it and continue on our way without much issue.

On to the 745m and 510m portages which were quite scenic and I enjoyed the view, despite being loaded up with a canoe and 100lbs of gear.

We reached McIntosh Lake with the sun getting low on the horizon, but still some time in the day.  Deliberating what site would be a good one by the map, we decided upon an island site, once again for the bear protection and a good view of the sunrise and sunset.  We got to the site and quickly assessed it for quality of tent spots, firepit, bear hang, and firewood.  The firewood was a little scarce, but I found a couple medium sized deadfall trees on the far end of the island – a bit of a hike, but some good wood, so we decided on this site.  The other alternative would be to check out another site, but that would waste another half hour of precious daylight.  In the end, I was super glad we took this site, as I got some phenomenal night shots from this site.

We collected wood first, since it was getting late, then set up camp and ate.  It was good timing, and we enjoyed yet another decent fire, and took photos of the night landscape.  The sky was crystal clear, the lake glassy, with the faint glow of Huntsville on the horizon and a full on view of the Milky Way.  There was no moon in sight to ruin the view of the stars which I was thankful for-I prefer a no moon full on starry sky to a sky dominated by the moon at night.

Day 4

Another brilliant sunny day to wake up to – prefect sleeping temperature and only slightly breezy.  This past night I slept without the fly on the tent and it was marvelous, gazing at the stars shining through the canopy of enormous White Pine trees.  I awoke just at sunrise and I rushed out of the tent to grab some good sunrise shots.  Unfortunately I wasted a bunch of time with the first bunch of photos, since my camera was still set up for night shooting and I forgot to put the settings back. 

I then made coffee and went for a shot solo paddle on the glassy water.  My Swift Kipawa is quite unstable and tippy but fun while soloing, especially when sitting in the rear seat.  Kneeling midway offers more stability, but the posture and the paddling are not quite as enjoyable.  I did manage to check out a swampy area and loop back to the campsite, with a loon resurfacing right next to my boat, more startling the loon than myself.

 Another dry out session in the brilliant sun, packing up and hitting the water again – this time we knew there was not much traveling,  just a long 2300m portage and that’s almost it to Tom Thompson Lake.  We paddled to one arm of Macintosh Lake and a serene but beautiful creek leading to Ink Lake.  The creek’s water was clear but very dark, my paddle disappearing into the murky depths.  Apparently Ink Lake refers to this.  The meandering creek was beautiful, lined with tamaracks in a bog-like setting of low bushes, moss and some pitcher plants.  Breaking out into Ink Lake we saw an amazing scene, with the mirror like Ink Lake reflecting off of the perfect little fluffy clouds (aka The Simpsons clouds) as we made our way across the lake to the long portage takeout.

The takeout is a little amusing - being so far away from everything, yet, there is this nicely constructed staircase made out of pressure treated 6 X 6 timber making it’s way up the slope from the water.  Sure, it helps with erosion and makes it easier to climb or descend, but it just is out of place; I’d rather keep it natural looking.  The portage is straightforward, a little muddy in places, a little rocky in places but not bad.  We came across a guy going the way we were, with a cedar strip canoe.  Only, instead of doing a single carry, he was doing a triple carry…  meaning he had to walk 7.9 kms instead of 2.3 km.  That cedar strip aint worth that, bro.

We arrived at McIntosh and the dude that had the cedar strip was just finishing up his portage and we chatted a bit.  We set off on Tom Thompson Lake and looked for a site.  This place was packed and many sites were taken.  I personally am not very accustomed to backcountry camping with many others around.  The reason this place has so many people is there is only one short portage, in fact the same first portage as we took on day 1, that separates Canoe Lake from this area..  and a couple hour paddle as well.  

 In any case we managed to get a site on a point.  A very large site in fact.  We looked around for some firewood..  not much to be found in an easily accessible campsite like this – just some green maple and green pine branches some douchebags cut down.  I did find a punky old dead pine tree standing up in close vicinity as well.  Exploring the woods behind this site and the campsite next to it, there was a ton of moose poo everywhere, some bear poo, and some unknown..  maybe coyote poo was well…  poo central!  I was hoping to see a moose (not a bear) with all of this fresh stuff around, but I never did see any creatures, other than humans…  and the busy beaver in the lake that decided to waddle up next to the campfire, rustle some bushes and have a late night snack, munching away right beside my canoe.  I went up to it to take a photo and it was not intimidated at all…   just sat there while I shone my headlamp on it while taking a photo.

Day 5

It was a Friday and time to head out today.  We took our time getting our gear together, it was another brilliant day.  Only a couple hour paddle and no portages back to Canoe Lake.  On the way out it was apparent that the leaves had changed significantly since we started the trip.  We enjoyed the sun, warm breeze and relished at the amazing fall colors as we leisurely paddled.  On our way out, there was armadas of canoeists heading into the backcountry since it was the weekend..  we were glad we were headed in the opposite direction. We got to Canoe Lake after the same 295m portage that we first entered the backcountry area. I wanted to check out the om Thompson cairn and totem since we were in the area and quickly stopped to check it out on the way back to the landing.  We got back mid afternoon.  Since it was so amazing out we eventually went to Canisbay to car camp and have a day hike the day after, but not before having a giant Hungry Bear burger, poutine and a bottle of Muskoka Brewery’s Mad Tom IPA at the Portage Store Restaurant…  amazing how your first meal back tastes after a great adventure!

Paddling and Photography – how to make electronics and backcountry paddling trips mix

    I'm into landscape and nature photography and take many photos during my backcountry paddling trips, both for the beauty of the landscape or the moment itself, and also as sort of a photo journal for the trip and what the area looks like.    For the on the water shots, I use my trusty Panasonic TS2 waterproof tough camera.  Back about 5 years ago, I used to go through 2 or 3 of these ultracompact cameras a season as I kept getting them wet in one way or another, and waterproof cameras didn’t exist at the time.  I kept it in an otterbox strapped to my kayak deck.  Nowadays it’s all good with the ubiquitous waterproof tough camera.

      The photos that come out of the Panasonic camera are great for on the water, but I do prefer to have my SLR on land, for the depth of field, quality, resolution and low light performance it offers.  But, bringing something that costs that much with you where there’s water all about, and the possibility of getting all your gear soaked is very high can send shivers down some photographers spines.  I looked around at all of the options available for waterproof containers for my camera and I found a great solution with the Lowepro Dryzone 200.

     Firstly, I like to have my SLR accessible during shore stops, lunch, portages, etc.  when on paddling trips so burying it in a drybag in a dry pack doesn’t work for me, not to mention, there is not much protection against crushing, rubbing, etc.  I also wouldn’t want to just strap a typical drybag to the deck or put it in the bottom of a canoe, as I don’t trust 100% any dry bag to be sealed properly.  I could have also used an otterbox, but they are very bulky, square, and don’t have any proper straps for when I need to portage.

      I bought a LoweproDryzone 200 backpack about 5 years ago – it was the only type of purpose built water protection for cameras that is also carry friendly at the time, and still is, as far as I can tell.  It consists of an inner pod, what they call a drypod, which is essentially a PVC watertight casing with a drysuit zipper from a german company named tizip. The bag  comes with a variety of Velcro dividers you can configure any way you would like to, so you can separate lenses, filters, cameras and accessories.  It’s big enough to carry my D600 with 28-300 lens attached, and maybe one or even two more medium/large SLR lens would fit in it as well.  The drypod is attached to a nylon outer backpack shell with loops around the case and some wire.  But, I have since taken the drypod out of the backpack shell and just use the case itself.  The reason why I did that was the shell made it harder to access the contents as I would have to undo another nylon clip in addition to opening up the zipper, the shell is also heavy and soaks up water making it wet all the time and even heavier, and the shell does add some extra non-protected storage, but not all that much, for all the downsides it has.  The shell itself weighs 3 pounds, seriously.  And that is when it's dry.  There's no use for it for my needs.

  The full Dryzone 200.  I just ditched the outer nylon shell and use the inner drypod bag.

     When kayaking, I thread some bungees directly through the loops around the drypod base and attach it to my deck lines on the rear of my kayak.  It is easily attached this way, and is awesomely accessible when I get out of my kayak.  When canoeing, I just place the drypod on the bottom of the cane in front of me…  once in a while I will take it out of the case for some photos while on the water, but not very often.  I generally use it for all of my electronics while on a trip – batteries, phone, filters, etc, and sometimes even put my toiletries kit or a book in there for dryness and ease of access.

     The one downside of using just the drypod itself is the lack of straps for portaging.  I have used the bungies themselves many times to act as backpack straps, but it isn’t quite ideal, although it is manageable.  My last rip, I didn’t have the bungie configuration the best configuration, and I did pull one of the attachment loops off of the base.  Basically the glue gave way on the attachment loop itself, it didn’t tear a hole in the outside.  I am going to look into getting some aftermarket PVC attachment points and some glue to mount some attachments for just some simple backpack straps to make this this ideal for my needs as a paddling drypod for my SLR.

     As for keeping water out itself, it is rated for IPX7 which means it is submersible.  It comes with a small tube of silicone grease to keep the Tizipzipper lubricated and sealed properly, as is used with drysuit zippers.  I have done rolls in my kayak with it, and there is no issue.  There is one caveat though.  You must make sure you do the zipper all the way up.  One trip to the French River I was lining my kayak down some rapids and the kayak flipped over, putting the drypod in the water.  I wasn’t concerned at all about the water and took my time righting the kayak.  Then I realized I hadn’t done the zipper up all the way, it was about 2 inches open, and there was some water in my bag.  The water  did mess up the electronics inside the Nikon D300 that I had at the time.  Luckily I was able to recover $700 by selling it as a water damaged item on eBay at the time.  So now, I make sure double check the zipper before putting in with the bag.

     The Dryzone 200 inner drypod is very functional and I think it is the most useful product out there to take your SLR camera gear on backcountry paddling trips.  The outer backpack shell is somewhat useful, but I prefer to use the drypod without the outer shell.  My only complaint is it is very pricey for what it is.  I wish that Lowepro would make a different version to sell of this – just the inner drypod with just two shoulder straps attached directly to it, without the outer shell  to reduce the price.

LoweproDryzone 200

Tizip

Making My Own Paddle Workshop Part 1

     I have been thinking about getting a canoe this year instead of renting.  It would be nice to have something nicer and lighter than the beat up piece of crap that you get if you rent, not to mention have a boat that you know how it handles and are familiar with, and also the convenience of having it and using it whenever you want.  But, I also need some paddles for the canoe.  A friend of mine told me about a paddle maker nearby Guelph that hold make your own paddle workshops that sounds like something I’d like to do a lot, since I like woodworking and making my own things.

      The workshop was organized through a group at the Evergreen Ranch, an interesting ranch and  meeting space for the collective that meets there for music and other things such as this workshop.  The paddle maker is Bruce Smith who makes paddles and also conducts these popular paddle making workshops in the area.  Normally the paddlemaking is conducted in one 8 hour session but this one is broken up into two sessions two weeks apart to be much fresher for the second part.  Bruce prepares the blanks for the paddles, planes and removes a good bulk of the material, so you are only doing the important shaping of the wood, not tediously removing  the bulk.  I chose a Tripper paddle with a shaft length of 34”.  The wood is a black cherry for the workshop and is made out of a single piece of 1.125” thick wood.

     Bruce is a great teacher and it’s evident he has been doing this for a long time.  Even though it does take a little bit of physical activity to shave the wood, it is quite easy (at least for me) to do, and is much easier that I would think it would be.

     The first step to making a paddle after the blank is to mark the centerline and edges that you want to shave down to.  You want to shave the edges down to 5mm, and the Bruce’s method/design for the tip is to thicken it to 10mm at the very end to give it some durability for using the paddle to push off, or when you hit shallow bottom.  Some other paddle makers wrap the end in fiberglass or use inserts for this purpose as well.  

     Then you use a spokeshave to start removing material by beveling the edges from the middle to the thickness you marked on the sides.  The lower part of the paddle is then flattened so there is no ridge in the middle and the paddle is relatively thin before the tip, to allow some blade flex.  The wood, depending on the grain, knots, and other variables such as sap wood or heart wood, grain directions, etc, gives the wood a carving character, and it needs to be worked differently in different areas.  Sometimes pushing the spokeshave is better than pulling, or pulling at a diagonal is better than pulling along the blade to minimize chatter.  It is very much a feel thing than a straightforward just do it thing.

     Next comes the shaft, having to make an oval shape   The worry when doing this kind of work is that you will mess something up and take too much wood off.  As everyone always says, you can always take more off later, but you can’t put it back on.  The method for rounding the shaft is shave corners at 45 degrees, then give a stoke on either side at 22.5 degreest to make a polygon.  Do this for all four corners, then keep repeating until it feels like it should with your hand.  Then use the rasp to clean up any ridges and make the surface more uniform.

out of a rectangular cross section, and it is surpridsingly easier than I thought, with just a spokeshave and a flat rasp..

     Making my own paddle will be quite satisfying and is a fun thing to do to have a paddle for my canoe.  Next session in two weeks will be to finish the handle and transition form shaft to blade, rough sand then finish sand the paddle, then I bring it home to stain, possibly wood burn, and finish oil/varnish.  More photos and logging then!

The Portageur’s blog has an excellent descriptive writeupand photos of the steps to make a paddle when he did it in a Bruce Smith workshop several years ago, check it out as well.

Links:

W. Bruce Smith Paddles

Evergreen Ranch

Portageur’s Blog – Paddle Making with Bruce Smith

Art of Manliness – How to Make Your Own Paddle